Authorities Called In Over School Funds Scandal

Education authorities say a law enforcement agency is now following up an allegation that a primary school in Sha Tin misappropriated money it collected for school trips to Australia.

Baptist (Sha Tin Wai) Lui Ming Choi Primary School is suspected of transferring part of HK$2.87 million collected from parents into a teacher's personal bank account.

The teacher is alleged to have use the money to pay for personal trips.

Education officials have already looked into the school's finances, concluding that some rules have not been followed.

On Thursday, they said the school has been issued a warning letter and has been asked to punish the staff involved.

They added that the matter has now been passed to a law enforcement body, without specifying whether this is the police or the anti-graft watchdog, the ICAC.

When the affair was first revealed by the media in October last year, school officials denied any fraud had taken place.

Apple Daily reported that the money was collected over several years from 2011 to pay for students' expenses while on trips to Australia, and that parents were told that anything left over would be put into the school's development fund.